Sunday, November 20, 2011

How many of you feel something stir inside of you when you see something like this?

Why do we oooh and aaaahhh?

Is is because of the innocence of this little one?

Life hasn't turned her bitter yet? She is sweet and pure?

I love babies , they are a beautiful reminder of all that is GOOD in the world

When I look at these precious little ones, I see so much joy and peace in their eyes

and at the same time I am reminded of the years that have put permanent "smiling and laughter lines" in my face

Cancer has taught me many things.

One is that I need to be reminded about how good life is, and how quickly it can slip away.

I was noticing lately that I have a few PERMANENT reminders of two more important things.... love.... and sacrifice.

All moms love what they do. We go crazy with guilt because we don't do it well enough, but when all is said and done, we wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. I don't think anyone would disagree that mothers make a LOT of sacrifices. That is the very thing that causes us to feel SO MUCH LOVE for these children. It is a natural human emotion to have pure love for something or someone that we SACRIFICE for.

When I look at these children of mine, mostly all grown now, I feel grateful and I feel in AWE! This is 5 of my 6 children.

My 21 yr old is in Argentina teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fact that Jonny is missing in this picture is a REMINDER to me of love and sacrifice.

These kids are a REMINDER of what I have spent the majority of my life doing. Raising a family. That's really all I ever wanted to do. I wanted to get married and play house.

When I was growing up, I wasn't aware of Jesus Christ, and HIS sacrifices, but by age 18 I was learning all about it. It has only been since I was diagnosed with cancer that I have taken the whole matter very seriously and studied the Life of Jesus and am starting to comprehend somewhat all that He means to me.

A few weeks ago, I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. I had already had the left hand done in June and my hand felt so good, I figured I should do the other hand since it went numb on a daily basis too. After the surgery,

I realized what an incredible REMINDER these scars are on my hands.

There is a scripture in Isaiah that comes to mind when I look at my hands,Isa. 49:16 "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands..."

It hurt to have my hands cut in to, but wow what a thought it was to think that Jesus had his hands cut ALL THE WAY through to the other side...

I love my scars now, they are the best reminder ever that someone paid a great price so that I could have freedom....... freedom from permanent pain.

One of the downfalls of being pregnant, is that the body takes on an extra load and sometimes it leaves behind permanent reminders of what it went through. I have 2 c section scars that I won't show you and I can't believe I am showing you the leg here, but my legs started suffering about my 3rd pregnancy. The veins broke and have never repaired themselves. I sometimes want to hate my legs, but as I am putting this all into perspective. I am seeing that these ugly veins are some battle wounds and

a reminder to me that I was blessed to be able to CARRY 6 children. Not everyone gets that privilege.

I have come to love Jesus so much more than I ever knew possible and this picture is not a really popular one, but to me it is special. While I was going through chemotherapy, I did a lot more praying than normal. One day when I was especially somber, I had the most incredible experience while looking at this picture, it is so sacred I can't share it here, but I

LOVE this reminder

I feel like I could go on and on about the reminders we have around us of LOVE and SACRIFICE and so many other good things about life.